----------- ABOUT ----------- TAXAMATCH is an algorithm for fuzzy (approximate string) matching of taxon scientific names. With normal exact matching, it is trivial to retrieve desired information from a taxonomic database, or match content across 2 or more systems, or determine that the same taxon name appears multiple times on a single list (deduplication). However if there is a character error affecting one or multiple characters in one or both names such that they do not match exactly, use of some sort of fuzzy match is required; TAXAMATCH is intended to fulfil that function, with particular tuning to the types of errors found in real world taxonomic data. Using TAXAMATCH, the intention is to always return candidate "true" near matches where these exist (as close as possible to 100% recall); suppress as many as practicable "false" near matches (high precision); and do all this in as short a time as possible (high efficiency), even against large reference datasets (>1 million names). The original project developed by Tony is a human interactive model made to be used much like a online dictionary to help identify a species. Original Resource developed by Tony Rees: http://www.cmar.csiro.au/datacentre/taxamatch.htm Taxamatch Webservice is a branch aimed to provide an API JSON service based on a PHP/MySQL model providing the same service but focused towards data cleaning, scripting applications, and real time mashups. This project has been developed by SilverBiology (www.SilverBiology.com) Please check the svn for the most current release: http://code.google.com/p/taxamatch-webservice/ ----------- INSTALL ----------- See INSTALL for help installing taxamatch-webservice. ----------- DEMOS ----------- See http://taxamatch.silverbiology.com/ for more information about demos. ----------- CHANGES ----------- See CHANGELOG for version changes. ----------- LICENSE ----------- The taxamatch-webservice classes and all associated examples are subject to the a GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. See LICENSE for full information.